I recently had a problem with my Digitech Vocalist Live 2, so I returned it to Guitar Center in Rockville and exchanged it for the Vocalist Live 4. If you are a solo musician or in a band, you really must check out the Vocalist Live products. The VL4 adds a lot of needed functionality, included saved presets, delay and reverb on both the guitar and vocals, preamp, de-esser, compression, simulation of female vocalists and large voice male vocalists, and tons of other great features. This thing is truly unbelievable, and has gotten me back into song writing just playing with it. It listens to the chords you play, and listens to your voice and creates insane harmonies in real time based on what you play and sing. A word of caution, if you are not a good singer, you will not be happy with the units - because adding harmonies base on off pitch singing just amplifies the problem! the guy at Guitar center told me they had quite a few people return them - probably saying they didn;t work well. I think the real problem is they finally found out the hard way they they don't have good pitch :-) If you tend to be just a little off key that is OK, and the Vocalist Live 4 can help, because it has configurable pitch correction. You can correct to chromatic scales, or you can correct to an number of keys and scales. Anything from myxolydian, to a major or minor, to aeolian! Unreal.
I can have Art Garfunkle singing along with me, or perform Crosby Stills and Nash (CSN) tunes with amazing harmonies now. I have had several people at gigs come up to me and ask if I pre-recorded the harmonies - or just plain confused at where the voices were coming from. I can't imagine being a professional solo artist, or any kind of professional singer/ gigging artist without one of these in my lineup. If any musicians in the Washington DC / Maryland Area would like to come try it out, just let me know - I would be happy to jam with you.
I can have Art Garfunkle singing along with me, or perform Crosby Stills and Nash (CSN) tunes with amazing harmonies now. I have had several people at gigs come up to me and ask if I pre-recorded the harmonies - or just plain confused at where the voices were coming from. I can't imagine being a professional solo artist, or any kind of professional singer/ gigging artist without one of these in my lineup. If any musicians in the Washington DC / Maryland Area would like to come try it out, just let me know - I would be happy to jam with you.
Here's a link for more info...
And Here's the Demo...
11 comments:
Hi Mike. Thanks for your review of the Digitech Vocalist Live 4. I am a keyboard player (Korg Triton Extreme & TR-61) and singer and I'm wondering if you know whether or not this unit will work as well with keyboards as it does with guitars? Any experience with this? Thanks...
Gary
Hi Gary. As I understand it, yes it does work with Keyboards - even though this is not documented, some people in the forum said it worked fine. I have been too scared to try it for fear that the levels on my keyboard might fry it or something. You can find just about all the information you would ever want on the VL4 here...
http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1750015
Hi Mike: I purchased a VL4 for Xmas. A wonderful new toy. My only issue is that I love my acoustic guitar to sound as natural as possible and usually use only a little reverb for an effect. However, when playing thru VL4 with presets off, and a vocal harmony on; the guitar has a sort of flanging sound, or perhaps chorus sound. Have you experienced the same thing. Were you able to eliminate or reduce these effects on the sound of the guitar? PS. I love these harmonies..it's really like playing with a group of excellent singers.
Joe
Hi Joe - I have never experienced anything like this. First off, can you go to my database page and load all of the settings you are using for a patch which gives you this problem? Put your first name in the form, so I know it is from you. I will then go into my system and set up the exact same patch and see if I can duplicate the issue.
There are some settings for guitar (Hi Low) sensitivity which you may want to try - and also the ground loop button may help as well - you may have a ground loop or something causing this.
Also - what kind of guitar are you using, pickup, etc? If you would rather do this via email, you can contact me at the email address found here:
http://m1westwood.googlepages.com/home22
Here is a post from the forum where one guy said it works great...
http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/showpost.php?p=24452219&postcount=179
Hi Mike I have the VL2 and I love it. The only problem is I don't have the ability to change to harmony style without reaching down and tapping a couple button. With the VL4 can you program it to do one harmony and then step on the pedal and change it to a 3 part harmony? The reason I am asking is although the VL2 sounds great every harmony I do has that Crosby, Stills and Nash sound when at time I would simple like it to be Crosby and Still and then add Nash later in the song by pressing the pedal and going to another preset.
Hi Mike I have the VL2 and I love it. The only problem is I don't have the ability to change the harmony style without reaching down and tapping a couple buttons. With the VL4 can you program it to do one harmony and then step on the pedal and change it to a 3 part harmonies? The reason I am asking is although the VL2 sounds great every harmony I do has that "Crosby, Stills and Nash" sound. At times I would simply like it to be Crosby and Stills and then add Nash later in the song by pressing the pedal and going to another preset if you know what I mean. Does the VL4 do this and is it quick and easy to do while preforming live.
dweatherly,
Yes - you can definitely do what you suggrest with the VL4 and it is quite easy. You simply create a patch you like with voal effects, guitar effects, etc in a preset location - let's say preset 25 as an example. You then edit that preset with the new harmonies you want to use and instead of saving to the same location, you save to preset 26. YOu can add another section for preset 27, etc. Then you just hit the patch up / down pedal once or twice, and boom - you have all the same guitar and effects settings, but with different harmony configurations.
I recently purchased the Digitech Vocalist Live 4 and although I love the unit I am having a problem. When I press the Harmony pedal on the unit I also accidentally press the Down pedal to the right which changes the preset and makes me mess up because it changes the setting. My feet are fairly big and this is becoming an issue the more I use the unit. I noticed their is a plug on the back of the unit for an Expression Pedal. I was wondering if it possible to buy and external on/off pedal and plug it into the Expression Pedal plug to turn the harmonies off and on instead of using the Harmony pedal on the unit?
David,
Yes - you can get an expression pedal that will not only turn on and off the harmonies, but it can set the levels of them as well. I have not tried it, as I don;t feel I need it. Whenever using the vocalist live 4 I play barefoot, so I don't have the problem with hitting multiple buttons - but I have heard other users having the same problem as you. the harmony central website is a great resource for lots of the questions you'll have on the VL4.
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